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26 Sept 2012

Dear Friends:

You are receiving this message because you have indicated your
support for the New York State Principals' Open Letter Regarding the NYS APPR
Legislation (http://www.newyorkprincipals.org/). We
thank you for your support and would like to provide you with an update on
activities since this new school year began. As always, the most recent version
of the APPR Position paper (with all signatures) is available at:http://www.newyorkprincipals.org/appr-paper. Given that the paper with signatures is over 142 pages long, we
have also created a separate link for the four-page paper
alone.

As
of the beginning of this new school year, over 1510 New York State principals
have signed the letter: that's over one-third of all principals in NYS! We have
nearly 7100 total supporters right now. Be sure to check out our website for the
most current information.

Some
articles to consider:

1)
APPR and Teacher Scores

The
year began with many New York State teachers and principals receiving "student
growth scores" from our State Education Department. A cursory look at the
research reveals all of the problems and damages related to attempts to provide
such scores; quite frankly, it is shocking that they are still being used and
considered!

Sean
wrote a piece about Ashley, a star teacher in his school who received a very low
score from the state. You can read his piece at: http://wapo.st/NqleD2

2)
The New York Times and the Chicago Teachers Strike

Many
readers of the New York Times were startled to read its "Chicago
Teachers' Folly" editorial published on September 11th. Clearly, the
editorial page is welcome to its opinion; what was surprising was the rationale
for its position and its lack of any attempt to cite research to back its views.

Fortunately,
Carol and Diane Ravitch wrote a response to this editorial. Be sure to read this
piece on Diane's terrific blog: http://wp.me/p2odLa-22k

3)
Voice Your Concerns about Changes to Teacher Education

In
the previous update, I wrote about the situation
involving Professor Barbara Madeloni from UMass. Some of our university
colleagues are organizing a pushback against the impact the policies of NCLB and
RTTT are having on teacher education. The
changes being imposed are altering the teacher education programs created by
professionals with experience. The bottom line is that Pearson Corporation, not
teacher education professors, will have final say in certifying teachers; and
teacher education programs will be assessed, in part, on the basis of the test
scores of the students of their graduates. Please read the linked petition for
details and please consider signing, writing to officials and sharing: https://sites.google.com/site/educatorsconcerned/

4)
Would Your Principal Send Home this Letter?

One
of our New York colleagues (and early supporter of our Position Paper), sent
home a parent letter that has received a lot of attention recently. You can read
Dr. Sternberg's letter through the following link (be sure to explore the
SchoolLeadership2.0 website after you read it): http://goo.gl/sCl82Have a
terrific end of the week!